ThorCon Corrosion Project

ThorCon aims to bring cheap, reliable, CO2-free, electrical power, globally, by means of a molten salt reactor. The SALT group is currently working on a project for ThorCon to characterize the corrosion rate that would be expected in secondary salt loop on the ThorCon reactor design. We are performing corrosion experiments in a natural circulation salt loop, which measures approximately one meter tall, by half of a meter wide; the loop will operate at the temperatures prototypical in the secondary salt loop of the ThorCon reactor design. Corrosion coupons will be inserted into the hot and cold legs of the loop and, after six months of loop operation, will be removed and analyzed using SEM to characterize the depth of corrosion into the samples.